American exceptionalism is an idea. It is an idea that was lit thousands of years ago out of humanity’s tumultuous past and proven to work and endure longer than all other ideas for social order that the human mind could conceive so far.

This idea has various attributes, some of the most commonly used being democracy, equality, and egalitarianism.

This idea could have come from any mind from any corner of the earth at any time of humanity’s existence on it.

Some have attributed it to “early Greek explorers whose ideas still light the world”.

The American Renaissance suggests that the United States is heir to Greek democracy.
According to a National Science Foundation sponsored documentary, which is titled “Greece: Secrets of the Past”, the debate in ancient Greece led to the understanding that equality redefined what it means to be human. Consequently, the idea of voting by the citizens of Athens to exercise equality started about five hundred centuries B.C.

This trajectory of exercising equality has endured and outlived the medieval period in Europe, two world wars, and the Cold War.

One can argue that American democracy is not mature enough. However, it is arguably more mature than any democracy in any corner of the earth today. It has struggled to overcome racism, an expression of inherently inferior culture, and has evidently come a long way. Today, it provides probably the most conducive environment for practicing professionals that have originated from every corner of the earth imaginable. In turn, these professionals are making contributions that are likely to make any corner of the earth a better place. The inventions of electricity, telephone, and internet are but a few of these inventions.

A critic of the recent opinion of President Vladimir Putin of Russia that was published by The New York Times suggested that Mr. Putin has regrets about the effect of communism on Russia that he is trying to achieve a conducive international environment in which their country could catch up. Apparently, democracy is an idea that Mr. Putin subscribes to, according to his expressed positive opinion about humanity’s battle for democracy.

Granted that there are grains of truth in these suggestions, this battle between dictators and the quest for democracy must be won by the latter. And it is this battle that compels some of us to take time to express such opinions because of the lack of democracy and conducive environment in so many other places in which to advance professional practice.

In exceptional America, an ordinary human being can be part of this battle by expressing such opinions using his or her right of the freedom of speech. Humanity will be served better by reminding itself the virtue of democracy and advancing it. In democracy, dictators and ordinary human beings are created equal, to use Mr. Putin’s words. We can safely say that this is clear enough in exceptional America.